The Love of a Lioness
by not strange just unique
Summary: There is no greater power than love and no greater love, than the love of a mother. Lily Potter provided the ultimate proof for that.


_**Title: **_The Love of a Lioness

_**Rating:**_ M

_**Warning:**_ My summary said it this is about the death of Lily Potter, if you want to keep your good mood turn back now. Should you read on and find missing commas, just keep them :)

_**Summary:**_ There is no greater power than love and there is no greater love, than the love of a mother. Lily Potter provided the ultimate proof for that.

_**Disclaimer:**_ I am not J. K. Rowling and that means (unfortunately) that her world does not belong to me. I just borrow it once in a while :) The italic quotes are from the first book and the last film ;)

* * *

_To have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever._

_Albus Dumbledore_

* * *

**The Love of a Lioness**

_31__st__ of October 1981 Godric's Hollow_

She knew something was off. For the tenth time Lily Potter looked out of the window in her living room. A few minutes ago she had put Harry to bed and since then the feeling wouldn't let her go. What made her so jumpy? Was it the date? Well, Halloween was the night of the dead, the only night of the year when the souls of the deceased could cross the veil and wander the world again, legends say.

The weather showed its respect for the dead by painting the sky black. The night was dark and stormy, lightening the only source of light in the eerie darkness. Outside the house the wind was howling. He whirled dry leaves around, the only victims he could take his anger out on, since the street was deserted.

Curled up on the sofa, Lily Potter watched the leaves dancing violently in the wind. They were torn away, stood absolutely no chance and for whatever reason that made her hair stand on end. She shook her head to get rid of all this stupid images. This jumpy feeling unnerved her, especially since it was idiotic! This was a safe house! No one could find a house that was under the Fidelius Charm! Only the safe keeper could tell and if she was absolutely certain about one thing than it was the fact that their friends would rather die than betray them! She knew it with all her heart and still she could not shake this uneasy feeling.

It was a sense of foreboding, the distinct feeling that danger is just around the corner, out of sight and out of reach, sharpening its claws.

She's had it with her own thoughts! She was going to look for James and then they could have a good laugh together at her expense or even better she could sneak into the room of her little boy. Nothing calmed her down as much as Harry did. A smile pulled at the corner of her lips.

Decision made, she stood from the sofa, looked one last time out of the window and stopped dead in her tracks.

No! No, no, no, no, no, no, Merlin **NO**!

Lily was thunderstruck, she could not move, not think, not speak.

Then her whole world came crashing down on her at once. And while her life was torn to pieces, fear began raining down on her soul harder and harder until it nearly choked her.

It was Halloween and her worst nightmare had come to hunt her.

There HE stood in his dark cloak, which did not betray anything except his wand.

The gate answered to his movement and let him in. But she stood frozen still and could not move a single finger. Panic had her in its claws.

Lily didn't know how HE found them, but she knew HIM, she knew what HE was.

**Death. **

She looked at the hooded figure and knew she would not live to see the sun rise again.

**Voldemort.**

And so would her family. Anguish began to rise within her.

And finally that brought her out of her stupor. NO! Voldemort would NOT kill her family. She would NOT let him! She was a lioness and she would fight like one! She ran through the door and nearly into her husband.

"Lily!"

He looked into her eyes and his smile died a quick death. No doubt he had seen the panic, the fear and the grim determination in them. His own eyes narrowed and then widened, which would have been comical in every other situation. He turned his head to look at the door and then back at her, his gaze fierce and hard. He had heard the footsteps.

"Go! I will stop him!"

With one last lingering look into the eyes of her husband Lily turned from the door and ran up the stairs as fast as she could, because death was chasing her. She opened Harry's door and barred it once she was inside. She leaned heavily against it.

How? How, how, HOW?! Had he found them?!

The Fidelius Charm must have been broken. Bile rose in her throat as she realized what that meant. Lily began to shake but was pulled back to reality when green light suddenly flashed through the gap underneath the door. She ran to Harry's bed but was not fast enough to escape the sound of a body falling downstairs.

Lily took her son out of his bed to hug him fiercely one last time, while she tried to hold her tears at bay. When she put him back in his crib her baby woke up and looked at her with eyes so similar to her own. She kneeled down in front of the bed, holding the bars in a death grip. Her voice was raspy and a bit wobbly with emotion.

"_Harry, you are so loved… so loved. Mama loves you. Dada loves you. Harry, be safe, be strong!"_

That was the moment the door behind her was blown into pieces.

Lily took a deep breath and then spun around and stood in one fluid motion. She shielded the crib with her own body. HE had no right to look at her beautiful baby boy! Voldemort towered in the door and she didn't need his twisted smirk to know that her husband was dead.

A wave of tears, of cries, of grieve wanted to swallow her from the inside out followed by a surge of pure animal fear, but she stood firm. She had to. James would have wanted her to. Her boy **needed** her to!

"Lily Potter." The voice was just as disgusting as the soul of her opponent.

"Voldemort." She laid all her disgust, all her hate into this one word and even if her voice cracked at the end she got her message through. But the only answer she received was a laugh in cold amusement.

"I will give you the choice your husband hadn't. Step aside and you will live. Your husband wanted to die, but you were always the clever one."

Lily's whole body shook, not from fear but from anger and her voice too echoed her emotions.

"Never! Do you hear me?! NEVER! I will not step aside and let you kill my son! I would rather die!"

How could he even ask?! Did he really believe she would step aside and sacrifice her son, her baby? She could feel the touch of small, soft hands through the bars behind her. NO, no she would NOT! She would not allow him to touch her son. HE WOULD NOT TOUCH HER SON!

"I swear to Merlin you will NOT TOUCH HIM!"

"You leave me no choice than." It nearly sounded pitying. "AVADA KEDAVRA!"

Lily saw the green light coming at her and her last thoughts were about Harry. While she recalled memories about her baby, for a tiny moment time seemed to stop.

Harry when he was looking at her, the first time he called her mama, the way he smiled, the way he laughed, the way James threw him in the air to catch him not moments later again and the excited giggles of her baby, the way he raised his arms to signal her that he wanted a hug.

Harry!

Harry!

HARRY!

The green light hit its target and Lily Potter began to scream, but her thoughts did not waver.

**HARRY!**

**SON!**

**PROTECT!**

Finally her world went black.

* * *

Magic depends on the intention of the caster, it is driven by emotion and there is no emotion more powerful than love and no love more powerful than the love of a mother. Whoever heard Lily's cry fulfilled her wish and her magic answered in the most intense of ways.

Lily Potter will never know, but true to her word Voldemort could not touch her son and was destroyed not once but twice because of his attempts. He was not able to break the bond between mother and son that had been strung with heart strings.

There is a reason why the proverbial animal fighting tooth and nail to keep her cups save is and will always be the **lioness**.


End file.
